Texas Professor: Americans Are “Unable To Handle Gun Ownership”

According to a Texas college professor, Americans are “unable to handle” their constitutional right to keep and bear arms. (Okay, just for clarity’s sake, I do not abide by this statement, but I’m relaying the article as it was originally written. I will rebut this man’s statement in another article).

The Dallas Morning News published an article by John Traphagan—a professor of religious studies and anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin, blasted Americans for wanting to boost gun ownership and expand concealed and open carry laws. Traphagan goes on to talk about the 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting as well as the more recent “biker gang” shoot-out at the Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, Texas, illustrating that Americans are becoming anesthetized to an epidemic of “ongoing violence”.

“There is simply no need for a civilized society to tolerate the type of gun-related violence that Americans seem to accept as normal,” Traphagan wrote. “Other modern industrial countries have realized… that it is unnecessary for people in a free society to have easy access to guns.”

Now I will throw in some statistics quoted in an article by Bloomberg Business;

Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

“In a database of mass killings since 2006 compiled by USA Today, roughly half of all instances where more than four died were motivated by a family dispute of some kind, while 30 percent start as robberies or burglaries. Just 20 percent were the type of public, random killings that occurred in Washington.” and “The number of individuals killed in mass shootings in the U.S. over the last three decades equals fewer “than a tenth of 1 percent” of the number of people murdered in America during that same time frame, as estimated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

Yet, Traphagan still maintains that Americans as a whole, ” “do not seem to be able to handle gun ownership in a way that permits maintenance of civil society.”

“[T]he evidence is clear — a heavily armed population in the U.S. is not secure because our culture does not seem to lend itself well to allowing the proliferation of guns,” Traphagan wrote.

He continues by saying that instead of allowing for widespread gun ownership, the solution to preventing mass shootings in the future is to enact additional laws that “prohibit many forms of gun ownership, significantly [curtail] or [eliminate] access to and the ability to purchase guns, and [implement] programs in which the government confiscates or purchases illegal guns already in circulation among the public.”

He believes that the implementation of strict gun control laws in countries such as those used in Japan, Australia, and South Korea should be used as standards for the U.S. as well.

“Americans need to recognize that one of the greatest threats to national security is their own heavily armed population, we need to enact legislation that will greatly reduce gun-related crimes and protect people from the dangers associated with widespread gun access and ownership.”

And yet his logic and reasoning are disproven with every study and statistic created, including a very comprehensive study by criminologists at Harvard University, where they concluded that stricter gun regulation in European countries have failed to effectuate any significant change.

“There is a compound assertion that (a) guns are uniquely available in the United States compared with other modern developed nations, which is why (b) the United States has by far the highest murder rate,” the authors of the study wrote, adding, “though these assertions have been endlessly repeated, statement (b) is, in fact, false and statement (a) is substantially so.”

Bloomberg puppet Shannon Watts and her group Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images

The professor concludes his article by insisting that Americans are better off living in a society that is secure “because people have peace of mind and experience freedom from violence” rather than living in a society where “everyone is ready to shoot one another.”

Traphagan, despite his extreme confidence in stricter gun control laws being the “fix” to our violence problems, he refuses to acknowledge the facts presented by many studies, including a 2013 Rasmussen report, that states; less than 20 percent of Americans viewed stricter gun control laws as the most effective means of reducing the number of mass shootings, and 62 percent said they do not trust the government to “fairly enforce gun control laws.”

Now, as I said in the beginning, I was going to refute and rebut this man’s statements, but that I would do it in another article. The only reason I’m not presenting my impressions on this article, is it would turn into a “rant that wouldn’t be pretty.”

What I will add is; I do not have a clue how anyone with as many credentials behind his name, could possibly be so oblivious to reality or ignore so many studies and statistics that completely destroy his own interpretations. I think Mr. Traphagan needs a little input on his article, let’s give him our impressions in the article comments.

Patrick James has worked as a firefighter/EMT for several services throughout the years, as well as a custom metal fabricator, certified personal trainer and chef.

Growing up in the rural suburbs of Detroit, it was during his frequent trips to Northern Michigan where he learned of his love for hunting and fishing. Spending several of his adult years in upstate South Carolina, his love of extreme sports took root in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains as he learned to rock climb and kayak.

“Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and vanish into air.” ~ John Quincy Adams

About the Author

Patrick James has worked as a firefighter/EMT for several services throughout the years, as well as a custom metal fabricator, certified personal trainer and chef.
Growing up in the rural suburbs of Detroit, it was during his frequent trips to Northern Michigan where he learned of his love for hunting and fishing. Spending several of his adult years in upstate South Carolina, his love of extreme sports took root in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains as he learned to rock climb and kayak.
"Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and vanish into air." ~ John Quincy Adams

Liberals will be the decline of this country and the downfall of our constitution! You can’t fix a stupid person who has preconceived notice of gun control. A dis armed society is the first step towards anarchy and a law less society.

Well Americans had guns since this country was started. Most the killings are done with illegal weapons, and if we rid ourselves of GUNS then no one will die?? Not logical thinking, women & children are beaten to death by fists daily, people die from baseball bats, lead pipes, rocks, seems we are going tgo have a long list of things humans can’t control themselves with????